Since I’m using the Greyhawk world map, but not the exact Greyhawk setting, settling instead on GURPS, a discussion of mana levels and techological levels where they are prevalent needs to be done, as well as some thought given to language and cultural groupings.
There is far less actual magical use and more Church inspired nastiness, especially in the form of Theocratic forces from the Pale waging a Crusade against the “new heathen Tehnites” and between Suloise clergy and those of the Oeridian gods. Too, while all the various political intrigues that are part of canon for the period right after the Greyhawk Wars are in place, many of those are nastier as well, with assassination becoming another tool of statecraft in many places. Bandits are numerous and dangerous and the Empire of Iuz is still rapacious as well. The “end of the Wars” may not have been the end in this iteration.
Most of the cultures are TL*3, with some of the more sophisticated regions, such as Greyhawk Free City or Nyrond or Keoland or the westernmost settled states (with the exception of Ull) are closing in on TL*4, albeit completely without anything relating to firearms or gun powder in existence, while many of the Barbarian lands are TL*2, with the Amedio Jungle tribes and most of those of the Hepmonaland Jungles as well being TL*0…but with a few tribes in the TL*1 range. The Rovers of the Barrens and the most isolationist of the Wolf and Tiger Nomads are just at the cusp of TL*2, really closer to TL*1, albeit their weaponry is usually bone, horn and the like than actual bronze.
Among human kind the Western (mid eastern style) culture group is centered on Zeif, Tusmit, the Plains of the Paynims, Ull, the Wolf and Tiger Nomads and Ekbir (and surprisingly, the Bright Lands as well), while the Snow, Ice and Frost Barbarians, the folk of Stonefist and the remnants of the Rovers of the Barrens all qualify as part of the “Barbarian” cultural group. The Oeridian cultural group handles most of the rest of the Flanaess, with the biggest exceptions being the Amedio cultural group (think Aztec), the Hepmonaland cultural group (think Olmec), the unique culture of Lendore Isle and the various demi-human groups, such as the High and Sylvan Elven cultural groups which are separate and Dwarven as a single cultural group which includes the Gnomish and Halfling folk who are not inculcated into the human cultures of their homelands. Finally there is the Darken Fold cultural group, which covers most humanoids and giant kind, with the exception of the Giant clans of the Crytalmist, Jotens and Hellfurnace mountain ranges who constitute the Giant cultural group.
I also handle languages a bit differently. I don’t like the Common tongue being a universal tongue. Rather there are three different major spoken Common Tongues, the Oeridian Common being the most common, with Darken Common being the next most common and finally Elven Common as the final of them. Oeridian Common is a trade tongue used nearly everywhere that the Oeridian cultural groups are found. Darken Common is the “universal trade tongue” of the Darken Fold cultural group (in theory more than in practice as only about 35% of the folk of that cultural group can understand it sufficiently to use it. There is an Elven Common, mainly for use between Sylvan and High Elven folk as within each group there is but a single language and there exists a Dwarven Common which is used mainly by Dwarves with Gnomes and Halflings that dwell within their communities as the dwarves are seldom willing to teach their tongue even to those they consider to be distant cousins. The Elven common though is sometimes used as a universal tongue by long travelers when nothing else seems to work.
Old Oeridian is still the most common WRITTEN language of commerce and business, even being used in some of the Elven, Dwarven and a very few “Barbarian” communities. The next most common is a written version of Elven Common although few outside of the elven and dwarven races use it. Other than these there are really no written common tongues, although Ancient Suloise is easily the most prevalent written language of long ago and Ancient Baklunish is widely known as well.
Other than these changes the languages remain the same as Greyhawk canon.
Magic is a bit different too. The idea of tying the power of magic to not only lines of power but also to the relative “health” of the region is not a new one, but is seldom used in RPGs. I though am a bit of a maverick.
There will be four mana levels in various places around the campaign zone. Everywhere from the High Mana lands of Celene, Lendore Isle, the Valley of the Mage, parts of the Duchy of Ulek and the land of the High Folk, and small parts of Veluna, Gran March and Keoland, to No Mana regions like the Sea of Dust (except for the Forgotten City which his the one and only Very High Mana region left) and the Bright Desert (except for the region within two miles of Rary’s Tower, which is High Mana), the Flanaess are variable and often hard to judge. Notable Low Mana regions are the Plains of the Paynims, Ull, the lands of the Wolf and Tiger Nomads, the Hold of Stonefist and the mountains close by it, as well as the lands of the Snow, Ice and Frost Barbarians and both the Amedio and Hepmonaland Jungles.
There is a recognizable pattern here, but it may not be as simple a pattern as it appears on the surface. The periphery of the settled lands of the Flanaess are where the Low Mana zones are, or the greatest of the No Mana zones, the Sea of Dust, as these areas are very lightly populated by sapient beings, but the presence of Mana in an area is also tied to complex life forms other than just sapient beings, so one might expect the Amedio and Hepmonaland Jungles to have normal Mana levels at the least, yet both are closer to No Mana than to Normal Mana. The reason for this is the subject of much debate among the most well traveled Magi.
Some small areas will be different in mana level than their surroundings for one reason or another and some will also give certain advantages to violent spell use and disadvantages to supportive spell use.
The mood of the campaign is almost Dark Fantasy, although the tenor will be closer to Sword and Sorcery. Initial characters will already be very capable, built on 250 points, as is detailed elsewhere, but won’t be world beaters yet. They will gain slowly in magical gear compared to D&D, but there is much, MUCH less magic use in this game than in a D&D Greyhawk game. You can be from where ever you want to be from, but YOU are expected to come up with a plausible reason as to why and how you got to the starting area, which is in the fringes of the frozen north, on the Thillonrian Peninsula .
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